Finding Perfection in Creatures
I stumbled across a very interesting article the over day titled Playing God: On Death, Motherhood, and Creating (Artificial) Life. I was astonished to find a brand new article centered around some of the issues that Creatures brings up. However, if one takes a look at the life simulation genre, there are very few games which can easily be compared with the original title. After spending a good deal of time reading and pondering, it struck me that I had been playing Creatures in a very different way than expected. Like the author, I tend to prefer perfection when playing video games, mainly because perfection in the real world is virtually impossible. The fact that most games allow us to start over offers us a chance to go back after failing a task.
I am notorious for starting a game at least a few times before getting into it. The sense of knowing what to expect allows me to make the “right” decisions without making a mistake. And in many games, a mistake can cost a virtual life! There is, however, a difference between being cautious and being downright neurotic. Why strive for perfection in a virtual setting? It takes away the suspense and, oftentimes, the real enjoyment. With such a preference for this virtual perfection, I wondered why I had never really sought perfection in Creatures.
The answer seemed all too simple and obvious when it dawned on me: There is no way of truly starting over to know exactly what to expect. As in real life, perfection in the Creatures series is virtually impossible. How does one even define the perfect Norn? It is such a subjective idea: One individual might see perfection in intelligence, another might strive for a perfect appearance, and still another might see perfection in experiences. The author mentioned finding the perfect point in a Norn’s life, and exporting him or her to remain in a state of suspended animation. In the end, though, this was just another way to bring about death.
Creatures has always been unique, particularly when it comes to the available playing styles. In the end, though, perfection is unattainable. Even a Norn with the perfect genetic sequence might stumble across some bad luck in life, and meet an untimely death. Would it even be enjoyable to watch a perfect life? Nurturing these virtual beings is how many of us enjoy the game. Even if our own nurturing is not perfect, we still have the knowledge that we put forth all we could. Funny how we can get so attached.
I will continue to revel in the imperfections of my Norns, and my own playing style. For certainly, imperfections are the indications of an interesting life! And that only scratches the surface of the possible discussions.
Wow, that was a great read; thanks for sharing. It’s wonderful to see how Creatures still impacts people, even so many years later.
Hey, good to see you posting again. I’ve enjoyed catching up with your Norns again. The other day I finally got all my Gen2 Norns into adulthood, so I’ll be posting soon too.
This post really highlights what I love about Creatures (well, one of the many things :P). And reading Steve’s posts on the Grandroids forums, this is one of the things he seeks too; people questioning the meanings of life, in this case, what it means to be ‘perfect’.
For me, a ‘perfect’ Norn would be one that can take care of itself without my intervention. How it goes about that doesn’t really bother me, as long as it’s not a ‘cheat’ in the form of immortality.
What I’ve just realised is interesting about my goal is that the only reason I want to achieve this is so I can leave a world full of Norns to their own devices and see how they evolve on their own. In other words, I want to achieve perfect only so I can see what imperfections the Norns come up with on their own!
And here’s an interesting way of looking at things: regardless of whehter you want to achieve greater intelligence or a specific look, each step closer you get the less perfect the creatures are. From the point of view of natural selection, wouldn’t a perfect Norn be one that is exactly the same as its parents? A ‘perfect’ copy?
We could go so deep with this topic :P
Man I forgot what I was going to post :P
Good read!
We could definitely get very deep into this topic! I would argue that if and when a perfect Norn was created, the game would change direction. I know my nurturing playing style is not shared by all, but creatures who could fully care for themselves would make my role minimal. I suppose it is something to strive for, yet I’ve come to the conclusion that Norns will always need some form of human care in order to fully function. Am I right? Perhaps not, but again, there is another aspect of the game: No one can predict what will happen, and it is very difficult to have a “wrong” opinion or idea about how to enjoy the game.
Well, from an evolutionary perspective, DS fast-agers are perfect norns. Immortal, instantly adult and breed like tribbles. (Rabbits have nothing on fast-agers.) But most players aren’t too fond of fast-agers, probably because they overrun your world with eggs and then don’t die off and let the eggs hatch.